Cyber Security at DHS an Illusion

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) computer network is reportedly just as impenetrable as the U.S.-Mexico border.

According to Help Net Security, a total of 671 unique vulnerabilities, of which 202 are considered high risk, have been discovered on the Mission Operating Environment (MOE) system. As the report notes:

The MOE is the backbone of US-CERT operations. It provides a basic computing environment that allows US-CERT personnel to exchange and access mission-critical security incident data and information system anomalies.

TG Daily reports that most of the vulnerabilities involve popular apps and platforms such as Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat and Java.

Also from Help Net Security, there are these remarks.

This is definitely bad news - this is the US-CERT we're talking about here! They are the ones that help civil agencies when they are under attack, and the ones that are supposed to warn everybody about the latest discovered security holes and the patches available to fix them.

On a positive note, other main information systems have passed vulnerability assessments.

Nevertheless, it's remarkable that the Department of Homeland Security has been able to evenly distribute its executive incompetence throughout all areas of responsibility. Typically, any organization can suffer from underperforming management areas. Not so with DHS, where everyone drops the ball. Kudos for consistency, guys!

Of course, what do I know? I'm just an American citizen, arguably a status term not found in the DHS lexicon.